The Sensemakers Club is a community-powered education space where curious people come to grow without performing or pretending to have it all figured out.
Are you a sensemaker?
A sensemaker is someone who helps people understand complex, messy, or ambiguous situations and turn that understanding into better decisions and action.
It’s not a job title.
It’s a role someone plays when clarity is needed. Some people make sense for a season, and some of us are professionals and hobbyists.
You might be a sensemaker if you...
- Translate between teams
- Fix structural issues no one else sees
- Clock patterns others don’t
- Care deeply about clarity and inclusion
- Question what’s next
- Maintain systems that prevent chaos
- Document what others skip
This week at the club
We are on our end of season break this week! No sessions are scheduled. Season 2 starts next week!
Browse our discussion groups or check out our full calendar.
1 PM ET Peership in Sensemaking
Hosted by Abby Covert & Alfi Oloo
Explore what it means to show up as peers rather than experts, and how relating to one another as equals changes the way we make sense of things together.
2 PM ET AI Field Notes
Hosted by Dan Cooney & Jolène Bouchon
A collaborative space for sensemakers to share insights, experiments, and questions related to their experiences with AI, fostering skill growth and documentation of evolving patterns in the field.
2 PM ET Making Sense of Change
Hosted by Skipper Chong Warson & Laura Chance
A curious group exploring the complexities of change and developing frameworks for effectively creating, embracing, or managing it across various scales and domains.
3 PM ET Shitty Maps: The Trojan Horse of Sensemaking
Hosted by Joe Elmendorf
A public session on how rough, imperfect maps can smuggle better thinking and collaboration into any team or project.
2 PM ET Ethics Open Mic
Hosted by Brenda Ray & Vladimira Girginova
A confidential, free-flowing space where sensemakers bring real ethical dilemmas to think through together with a supportive peer hive-mind.
3 PM ET Heart-Centered Sensemaking
Hosted by Jasmine Ibrahim
A session exploring how to bring emotional intelligence and heart-centered awareness into the practice of sensemaking.
1 PM ET Shitty Maps (Member's Only Workshop)
Taught by Joe Elmendorf
Learn to share rough maps of your thinking to invite better input and collaboration before the work is finished.
2 PM ET Systems Lab
Taught by Holly Schroeder
A hands-on workshop exploring systems thinking tools and techniques to better understand complex, interconnected problems.
3 PM ET Collaborative Sensemaking: Agreement is Not Alignment
Hosted by Matt Arnold
A special session exploring the difference between reaching agreement and true alignment when navigating complex, chaotic situations together.
12 PM ET Timeless Sensemaking for Modern Sensemakers
Hosted by Abby Covert
An extended session exploring timeless sensemaking principles and how to apply them to modern challenges.
2 PM ET Collaborative Sensemaking
Hosted by Matt Arnold
A strategic group exploring navigating complexity and sensemaking in both structured and chaotic environments.
What’s going on?
Week of July 20, 2026
Abby Covert
Chief Sensemaker
Last week we hosted our Beginner’s Meeting and Monthly Design Jam. On July 13 for The Analog Leap, members warmed up their drawing hand with scribble and gesture exercises to build a more embodied, less precious relationship to visual thinking; on July 14 for Sensemaking Through Play, members explored what types of games and simulations have proven effective for learning a new skill; on July 16 for Making Sense of Other Humans, members wrote imaginary chapter titles for the "Humans 101" handbook nobody handed them, completing the sentence "I just wasn't prepared for ___"; and on July 17 for Making Sense of Money, members traded what has and hasn't worked for them in negotiation.
Themes from last week:
- Getting out of the head and into the body
- The gap between what's valued and what's visible
- Permission and power shape what people feel safe to try
Gaps between our capability and our confidence create discomfort.
Take our FREE 24-question assessment to reveal the gaps in your unique sensemaker shape.
Request the Sensemaker Assessment